Sublimation Drying of Fish Products in the Arctic in the Production of Feed for Farm Animals

Introduction. The article considers biological resources of the Arctic, which is expedient to use in the production of fish meal for feeding farm animals. The aim of the research is to prove the usefulness of a continuously operating two-chamber line for sublimation drying of fish products using natural freezing of fish catch and a cheap source of thermal energy for drying: ethane, propane, butane (waste when cleaning natural gas and petroleum products of local enterprises), as well as microwave energy. Materials and Methods. A continuously operating two-chamber sublimation line is proposed, the chambers of which work alternately: one for the process of sublimation drying, and the other for loading and unloading processed products. The natural freezing of fish and thermal energy for the process of sublimation (drying) from the burning of waste gas are used whenever possible. When there is cheap electricity, it is advisable to use microwave energy for drying that makes it possible to shorten the drying cycle, ensure uniformity and simultaneity of drying the material up to 3–5% humidity without rearranging the trays along the height of the cart. Results. We propose the construction of a two-chamber sublimation line for large lump products and a sublimation unit based on microwave energy, which allows regulating the sublimation drying temperature within specified limits. Discussion and Conclusion. The presented design solutions of a large lump product sublimation drying line and sublimation unit using microwave energy are necessary for designing equipment based on digital technology.

Heritability and Combining Ability for Cold Hardiness from Partial Dialleles in Iranian Pomegranate Cultivars

The development of cultivars with broader climatic adaptation has recently become the objective of most fruit breeding programmers. Regarding the importance of genetic control of cold hardiness as an influential characteristic for pomegranate and lacking studies in this area, the genetic control of cold hardiness in pomegranate using a partial mating scheme was studied. Five parents, including ‘Rabab Post Ghermez Neyriz’, ‘Malas Yazdi’, ‘Poost Sefid Dezful’, ‘Malas Pishva Varamin’, and ‘Poost Nazok Torosh Abarkuh’ with different cold hardiness capability were screened following a cold hardiness test in the laboratory and an evaluation of cold injury after natural freezing events in the field. The five screened cultivars were crossed in half-diallel crossing scheme with a total of 10 crosses in the Spring of 2014. Cold hardiness of the parent cultivars and the F1 progenies were investigated using the electrolyte leakage (EL) method. Results showed that both general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were statistically significant. The hardiest parent (‘Poost Nazok Torosh Abarkuh’) showed the largest positive GCA effect (1560.59) for winter survival, suggesting that this parent is capable to produce tolerant offspring with high breeding values in crossing programs. The significant SCA in this study suggests that specific crosses should be targeted to produce highly capable offspring. Cross between ‘Poost Nazok Torosh Abarkuh’ and ‘Malas Pishva Varamin’ showed high value for SCA (1661.74), indicating capability for production of tolerant offspring to the cold condition. Furthermore, high broad-sense heritability (0.70) and moderate narrow-sense heritability (0.45) for cold hardiness indicate that a reasonable progress could be made in improvement of this trait through conventional breeding.